The board this week.
Last week I asked what you need. This edition is the people who answered, what they said in their own words, and one word you can reply with if you can help any of them.
What the card did
Two weeks ago I put one question in this email with six answers you could tap without leaving your inbox. Eleven taps came back. When I checked who tapped, between three and five were people. The rest were corporate mail scanners, which open and click every link in an email before it reaches an inbox, and two of them tapped all six answers in four seconds. I am telling you this because anyone quoting a click number at you without checking it is guessing.
The card did better than the poll, because a machine cannot type. Three people filled it in on the form. One typed the whole thing into a reply, nine answers by hand. Five applied for a panel seat. Ninety seven of you answered one question about what you are. A person read every one of those, me, and every one got an email back that named the thing they said and asked one question.
Below are the ones who told me it is fine to print what they need. Each one has a word. Reply with the word and I make the introduction myself, with the reason attached, and I tell them who you are before you speak.
The board
MONEY, AND PILOT PARTNERS
DL | Deborah Lee · AI Empath · New York |
I am raising a $1 million pre-seed round for AI Empath, with our first $50,000 secured. I am looking for warm introductions to pre-seed investors interested in applied AI, the future of work, and preventive mental wellness, particularly those comfortable investing at the pre-launch stage. I am also seeking introductions to high-pressure tech companies that could become founding paid pilot partners.
She filled in the whole card by hand, in a reply, on the day it went out. Needs it by October. What she gives back: body-based tools for regulating stress before the meeting that matters.
Reply EMPATH and I make the introduction.
 | CAPITAL, AND CUSTOMERS IN LATIN AMERICA Gilles Raynaud, KIBO, Bolivia Why Bolivia? Because it is one of the hardest FX markets that were possible. So we like challenges. We made Bolivia a stress test to prove our model. KIBO moves cross border payments for exporters and importers on stablecoin rails, and settles in fifteen minutes where the banks take days. Two things are useful to him and the second is rarer: you write checks into fintech in emerging markets, or you know somebody who imports or exports real volume into Latin America. He pays a commission on any customer that closes, and he said so on the call before anyone asked. Reply KIBO and say whether you are coming as capital or as a customer. |
$75,000 TO LAUNCH, AND OWNERS WHO WILL TALK
D+A | Daniel and Athina · a payroll bureau for one to one hundred employee businesses |
They are building a high touch payroll service for the small businesses the big providers put on hold, and they are raising about $75,000 to launch it. Before the money they want twenty minutes with owners of businesses under a hundred people about how payroll fails them today, and letters of intent from the ones who would switch.
Reply PAYROLL if you run a business that size, or you back companies at this stage.
A STAGE ON THE FOURTEENTH, AND THE INVESTORS IN THE SEATS
 | Rik Mehta · CEO and co-founder, Lactiga |
As a biotech founder in longevity and immunology, the next status symbol won’t be what you wear, but how slowly you age, and AI-guided immune engineering is about to turn longevity from a wellness trend into a measurable, investable luxury category.
That is the one sentence he says this audience has not heard. He applied for the investing and capital panel on Monday the fourteenth, and Richie sent him.
Reply LACTIGA if you invest in longevity, or you want to be in the room when he says it.
A STAGE ON THE TENTH
PB | Phyllis Barikisu Snyper · founder, Zekanor |
The biggest opportunity in fashion AI isn’t replacing creativity, it’s giving smaller brands the intelligence and operating power that once only the largest fashion houses could afford.
Applied for the AI and technology panel and picked Thursday the tenth at Matriarch. I want that point on that stage. If you run a small fashion brand and that sentence describes your problem, she is the person to meet.
Reply ZEKANOR and I put you two together.
THE FASHION AND LUXURY PANEL
HH | Helen Huang · founder, Dreama |
Bring fashion, lifestyle to future.
Six words on the panel application, and a Daily News feature behind them. She applied for the fashion and luxury seat on the fourteenth and said any date works. If you build in fashion or luxury and want an operator on your side of the table, ask.
Reply DREAMA and I make the introduction.
A PLACE IN TIMES SQUARE, AND A BUYER
MB | MéLisa Best · Euphoria Muse Collection |
And yes, Stephen: let’s discuss Times Square FW.
A twelve fragrance collection called Muse. She showed it at Hamptons Fashion Week in August and wrote that line to me three weeks ago. What would move it: a retail buyer or a boutique that stocks independent fragrance, and a table on the fifteenth.
Reply MUSE if you buy for a store, or you want to smell it before the fifteenth.
NOT A BUSINESS
◆ | A mother in New York |
helping my son.
That is the whole card. Under need she wrote money, under what she can give she wrote support, and under deadline she chose No deadline, I am exploring. This one does not get a keyword and it does not go on a map. If you have been through something with a son and you would take a call from her, reply and say so. I will ask her first, and she decides.
Reply if you would take the call. Nothing about her goes anywhere until she says yes.
Two more cards, no names yet
Two more came through the form this week and neither has told me yet whether I can print a name, so I have not. One is a New York founder using AI agents to argue residential property tax appeals for homeowners, who needs money to mail more properties and anyone who has worked inside property tax appeals. The other is a healthcare technology operator looking for a director level or above role in health tech and AI within a month, and offers advice in return. Reply TAX or HEALTHTECH and I ask them.
New on the marketplace
Three asks posted on the marketplace since the last time I printed it, all still at zero replies.
Matthew Sacks wants a technical co founder or CPO for a local first, privacy focused assistive tech company, real time sign language translation and sensory safe navigation, already in NVIDIA Inception. Reply COFOUNDER.
Anis Amir is a product generalist with seven years and a design strategy master’s who wants a product or chief of staff seat at a startup. Reply GENERALIST.
Shabs F. wants to work with event hosts on engagement at their events. Reply HOSTS.
What happens when you reply
This is the part that did not exist a month ago, and it is the reason there are names above.
You fill in the card, or you reply to this email. Either one lands with me. Nobody has to find a form.
A person reads it. Me. Not a filter, not a tool, not an assistant sorting it into a folder.
It goes into one record with every other ask, offer, room and reply Propel has, so I can see who is working on the same thing as you.
If I know somebody who fits, you get an introduction with the reason attached. If I do not, I tell you that, which is more useful than a maybe.
Every close gets written down with what it took and how long. That is the number I will print here from now on, and next week it starts with how many people replied to each card above.
If what you have is not a card, a sponsorship, a panel seat, a press request, a partnership, an event question, anything, one form now takes all of it. It asks what it is for and then only the questions that matter for that.
Upcoming Events
The Family Office Dinner at Cipriani Twenty covers, one table: family office principals, the sponsors underwriting the week, and a few of the designers walking it. Seats are given, not sold. Your card is held, not charged, until I approve the seat.
| WOW New York Fashion Week at Matriarch 512 West 42nd Street. Doors at two, runway shows through the night, and a happy hour room from five hosted by Richie Hosein. Produced by Shawn Kaplan and S.A.F.E. Global.
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The AI Shift, M Social Rooftop, Times Square Four panels back to back: How AI Is Changing the Landscape in Fashion, Faith and Fashion, How Do I Get an Investor, and EMERGE, How to Start a Brand. Networking from four is free, the panels are ticketed.
| Times Square Fashion Week, Father Duffy Square Exhibitor marketplace from noon, awards at five, the designer runway six to eight, the billboards light at nine, after party until eleven. Code PROPEL takes 20% off every tier.
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DEE IS CASTING, AND SHE ASKED ME TO PUT THIS HERE
Dee Rivera runs production on the fourteenth and the fifteenth. Two things are open as of today, read off the live listing this morning.
Panel seats, Monday the fourteenth. Seats are still open on all four panels. Founders, investors, operators, executives and press. Ten questions, two minutes, nothing to pay, and your name goes on nothing public until you say the word. Submit your info for a seat, or reply PANELIST.
Times Square, Tuesday the fifteenth. Five exhibitor tables at $3,000 and two designer runway slots remain. Reply EXHIBIT or DESIGNER and Dee sends you the package with the numbers, or reply DECK for the sponsorship deck.
Connect with Me
Follow Propel Earth
Join the Propel Founder Whatsapp
Till next time,
Stephen Michael
IF YOU MISSED THE LAST FEW
Dee Rivera does not call herself a PR person. She calls herself a curator. Eighteen years placing other people in the spotlight, and the two rooms she built herself this week.
Shawn Kaplan sells everything except the runway. How fashion week got unbundled into eight formats and seven price tiers, and what that means for the fifteenth.
New York Fashion Week: the four events we are hosting. Cipriani, WOW, M Social and Times Square, with the way into each.
 | THE PRIVATE NETWORK Three introductions a month, to someone who can pay you, hire you, or move your company forward. Made by hand, from what you told me on your card. Free entry to every room I run. $200 a month, and the first 25 members hold that rate for as long as they stay. |
Not sure yet? Take fifteen minutes with me and tell me what you need. If I do not think I can route it, I will say so rather than take the money.
KNOW SOMEONE WHO SHOULD BE IN HERE
Forward this to them, or send them the front door, where the card, the map and the Private Network all sit one click apart.